California Desert tours, things to do and tickets

Ride from the desert floor to the pristine wilderness of the Mt. San Jacinto State Park on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Enjoy great views on your way up to restaurants, a natural exhibit area, and more.

On a hot summer's day, one of the best things to do in Palm Springs is to take a ride from the dry desert floor with the Aerial Tramway, 5,873 feet up into the cool climate of the San Jacinto Mountains. Come and ascend into a pristine wilderness aboard the world's largest rotating tramcars! Truly one of the greatest experiences in Southern California!

Only Red Jeep Tours can take you to Metate Ranch, located in the heart of the San Andreas Fault Zone.

On this awe-inspiring OPEN-AIR Jeep Tour, you will travel deep into the heart of California’s world-famous San Andreas Fault and witness the forces of nature that have created amazing, steep-walled canyons and the most twisted and tormented landscapes on Earth!

You will be awestruck by the spectacular scenery as your Jeep winds its way through the bones of the earth. During your adventure, you will stop several times for short nature walks, including a short hike through a slot canyon, if desired.

This tour also stops at a natural palm oasis, where water bubbles up from the ground year-round. Here you will learn about how the Cahuilla Indians used desert plants to survive in this inhospitable environment.

A final highlight is a guided tour of our recreated Cahuilla Indian Village that showcases the lifestyle and culture of the Cahuilla people.

Purchase one tour per car, not per person. Everyone listens together!

Explore the rugged, mystical beauty of Joshua Tree National Park with this narrated driving tour. Discover a desert full of amazing hikes and cartoonishly strange trees, and hear all about the area’s fascinating history, from the greed of the gold rush to the McHaney Gang’s reign of terror. Enjoy all this in any season from the comfort of your own car!

• Tour Joshua Tree National Park from the comfort of your own car
• As a bonus, this package also includes a tour through Hidden Valley Nature Trail!

After booking, check your email to download the separate Audio Tour Guide App by Action, enter your unique password, and access your tour. These steps require good internet/Wi-Fi access. From there, follow the audio instructions and the route.

New, extra validity — now yours for an entire year! Use multiple times over multiple trips!

Explore a remote national park less than an hour's drive from the lush resorts of greater Palm Springs. Wonder at the otherworldly plants and rock formations in a unique, and wild desert setting. THIS IS A RUGGED, 4x4 ONLY TRAIL. For those wanting a smoother experience and to see more of the park highlights please consider our Joshua Tree Driving/Van Tour. We don't recommend it for anyone with any back injuries, with any neck injuries, anyone that is pregnant or gets car sick easily. Age limit is 6 years old. This is group tour.
This activity has a 2 person requirement for the tour to run. If you are a single rider, please call first.

You and your crack team have been assembled to pull off this caper which will involve sneaking past the bank’s high-tech security, hacking your way into a computer, and working out and deciding how you’ll break into the vault. Your objective: Get as much loot as you can before the police come and spoil all the fun.

The “unsinkable” Titanic is going down. Fortunately, you overheard the captain speak of a hidden life boat. This may be construed as mutiny but you decide to gather your crew and work your way through Captain Smith’s cabin anyway. Discover what secrets Captain Smith has been keeping from the passengers and crew.

Just north of Palm Springs lies one of nature's majestic creations, Joshua Tree National Park. In the comfort of an enclosed, climate-controlled vehicle your guide will take you on an extensive all paved road tour through the stunning rock formations and otherworldly landscape of the Mojave Desert.
This activity has a 2 person requirement for the tour to run. If you are a single rider, please call first.

SUMMER 2024 UPDATE: Boy, is it hot! Generally, there are no tours scheduled during the summer months, but if you're coming into town & are not terribly heat-averse, please email me directly at Brennan@ModernAndMoreTours.com for summer info.

This is a small group 3-hour bike tour of 3 architecturally & historically significant neighborhoods in south Palm Springs. Quiet streets, no hills, constant sunshine, & very little traffic make for a great ride for novices or expert cyclists alike. (This is not an athletic tour, fear not!)

We'll explore Deepwell Estates, Twin Palms, & Indian Canyons, making frequent stops for photos & to learn details about specific homes & architects.

NOTE: BIKES ARE NOT INCLUDED! Discounted bike rentals at Big Wheel Tours. They have colorful retro cruiser bikes & e-bikes.

[ I've designed this tour for serious architecture & history fans, with academic-level information & detail. So, it may not be the most enjoyable tour for some children. ]

Small group Jeep/SUV tours of the San Andreas Fault zone.  Colorful canyons and tortured landscape make this tour a memorable once in a lifetime adventure. Also enjoy the area's agriculture, views of the Salton Sea. This is a group tour.
This activity has a 2 person requirement for the tour to run. If you are a single rider, please call first.

Take a wild ride through the California desert in a comfortable open-air Hummer. This tour journeys through fabled Joshua Tree National Park. You could now choose to leave from Palm Desert or at a discount come out to Yucca Valley at the Welcome Center where the open air Hummer begins. Those beginning in Palm Desert will ride in an air conditioned shuttle for comfort.

Experience the natural beauty of the area while learning about its ecosystem and history from a National Park–approved guide.

We have taken over 100,000 happy guests on this tour and you will not be disappointed.

For those beginning this tour in the Palm Desert or Palm Springs area, we offer a comfortable air conditioned shuttle that takes you to Joshua Tree where the open air H1 Hummer portion of this tour will begin from the Welcome Center.

You will need your own car on this tour which you will be guided along with an audio program and marked destinations throughout the first commercial wind farm in Southern Calfornia. Once booked, we send you an email confirmation along with an App download and instructions. The tour starts with a display yard of non-operating wind turbines of successes and failures, along with a stop to a real generating wind turbine where you can get up close and take pictures. The tour ends with a stop at the Indigo Power Plant and retired wind farm. There you can exit on 19th Avenue to Indian Canyon Road and leave with more knowledge about renewable energy! The tour takes approximately one hour depending on your pace. We ask that you respect others by not gathering at the marked destinations. Please allow cars ahead of you to finish their exploration before your turn. One booking, includes two adults.

Head out on this a small group tour into Joshua Tree National Park conducted on an exciting air-conditioned H2 Hummer or touring Van. Gawk at the amazing contortions of rock that create an amazing landscape of vibrant colors against the bluest sky in California!

Your expert guide will illuminate your understanding about how this landscape was created and share the stories of the Indians and settlers who lived here.

See the most iconic and most photographed places in the park as well as stop at a viewpoint where you can see all the way to Mexico!

This tour will visit the most iconic locations in the park including it's legendary giant boulders, learn about the forces of the San Andreas Fault that jolt the landscape beneath Joshua Tree itself.

SCHEDULE

Morning Tours:

Palm Desert Mortons
Daily. 8 am to 1:30 pm

Palm Springs Art Museum
Daily 8:30 am to 1:30 pm

Yucca Valley Welcome Center
Daily 9:30 am to 12:30 pm

A paved road, downhill bicycle tour through a Federally protected Wilderness zone along the San Andreas Fault. Riders will be treated to magnificent vistas of the wide open Colorado Desert, enter a tortured badlands canyon, then finish off with views of the Santa Rosa Mountains and ride through the agricultural fields of the Eastern Coachella Valley. Age limit is 12 years old. This is a group tour.
This activity has a 2 person requirement for the tour to run. If you are a single rider, please call first.

In Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1690s, a man & a woman fall in love. But shortly before the wedding, the man finds a magic spell in his fiancée’s handwriting - the spell was to make him fall in love with her by unnatural means. He rejects her & calls off the wedding, calling her an evil witch. “I'll show you an evil witch!” she vows & turns him into a vampire, but that isn’t all: he finds his coffin impossible to open! Now it’s up to you & your team to uncover the secrets of their love affair & help the vampire reclaim his coffin.

Merlin's Magic School is in trouble. The entire school was accidentally cursed during a talent show, and only you and your team are able to save everyone by finding Merlin's hidden spell book. In this game you'll have to figure out what to do with magical objects, get help from a magical creature, and work your way into Merlin's secret study. What's in there?

A guided bicycle tour to the culturally significant and majestically scenic Indian Canyons in South Palm Springs. Age limit is 12 years old.
This activity has a 2 person requirement for the tour to run. If you are a single rider, please call first.

Discover the celebrity homes of the rich and famous on a tour of Palm Springs. Travel by Mercedes van to see more than 50 houses, including the former residences of Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra.

We are a true Eco Tour company in the state of California using wagons and mules to tour an ancient wilderness. You will have to go to Colorado or Montana in the summer to do something like this. A truly unique western experience. Where can you take a wagon tour pulled by mules into the desert wilderness in the world? No where but here!

We are an authentic and unique desert tour that showcases the natural flora and fauna of the Palm Springs Desert ecosystem. Our live entertainment is professional and very enjoyable. We offer optional dancing lessons, games and great food. The most total inclusive and immersive desert experience in the Coachella Valley. Adventurous, educational, beautiful, unique, fun, delicious, happy, Hallmark Movie is what we have been described on our reviews! The good old days are still here at Covered Wagons!

I am a 22 year resident of the Mojave Desert and log over 500 miles annually on foot within Joshua Tree National Park. Over the years and miles I've cultivated an awareness of landscape, ecological systems, and local culture that when contextualized by the trail becomes a narrative experience I'm eager to share.
I landed in Joshua Tree after dropping out of college in 2001. Back then you arrived by chance or a friend of a friend said you had to check out the rocks, feel the energy, and camp under the stars.
I fell in with the gathering characters, an assortment of dirtbag climbers, avant artists, practical new age visionaries, and entrepreneurs...an amalgam of identities that would go on to create the image of the High Desert that is so coveted today.
I am legally permitted to guide within Joshua Tree National Park and happy to host you. I know my stuff and I want you to know it too.